Underscoring the depth and urgency of Los Angeles’ budget crisis, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday implored the City Council to take immediate steps to reduce the deficit, replenish the emergency reserve fund and protect the city’s credit rating.

“I have profound respect for the difficulty of the decisions you have to make, but I want to say this: we can’t continue to say `no’ to everything,” Villaraigosa told the council, which went against the advice of budget analysts last week in voting not to implement any layoffs for 30 days.

“We can’t keep saying no to layoffs, no to furloughs, no to department eliminations, no to parking meters, no to (leasing) parking structures, no to privatizing golf courses, the zoo and the convention center, no to lending council (discretionary) funds for the reserve,” Villaraigosa said.

“The fact is we can’t sustain this business model. The status quo cannot be maintained. We’re going to have to change it, and change it now.”

The Mayor’s Office said Tuesday’s meeting was Villaraigosa’s first parliamentary-style, question-and-answer session with the council. The exchange was largely cordial, though City Council President Eric Garcetti disputed the mayor’s characterization of the council’s response to the crisis.

“I would like to state very clearly that this council has said yes to a lot of painful things,” he told the mayor. “We’ve said yes to furloughs, and yes to moving forward with the parking lots, and yes to getting the mechanics’ layoffs moving forward and yes to moving council funds.”

Villaraigosa urged the council to act quickly to lease parking garages, enter into private-public partnerships for operating such assets as the zoo and convention center; and accept the inevitability of layoffs.

The council had granted the 30-day reprieve on imposing up to 1,000 layoffs in hopes of finding alternative ways to cut costs, but Villaraigosa was blunt.

“There is no situation – none – that exists where layoffs will not be a part of the solution here. None,” he told the council. “Layoffs will be a part of the resolution of this three-year deficit.”

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents the Harbor Area, questioned whether layoffs would just add to the region’s overall economic problems.

“If we lay off 1,000 workers, that’s 1,000 families that can’t pay their mortgage, that’s 1,000 people not shopping in our stores or 1,000 people contributing to our city,” Hahn said. “I just think there ought to be ways to keep those people.”

Council members engaged in sharp debate over the city’s financial problems, but did not take any votes.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the Westside, asked what steps would be needed to change the city’s pension system to save money.

“My constituents want services,” Rosendahl said. “They don’t like to see 70 cents of their dollar go for pensions and health care. We need a blueprint on how we get out of this.”

Julie Butcher, director of SEIU Local 721, which represents thousands of city workers, said the city was acting prematurely.

“The workers love this city and want to make it work, Butcher said. “It was the city workers who helped solve the problems this past year and we will be there in the future.”

Villaraigosa also asked the council to lend about $40 million of discretionary funds to bolster the emergency reserve.

Representatives from two credit rating agencies expressed concern about Los Angeles’ precarious financial position and the City Council’s indecision on budget cuts last week.

In a memo to Villaraigosa and the City Council, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said Fitch Ratings officials told one of his aides the agency was monitoring a number of factors that could lead to a downgrade of the city’s credit rating, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Those factors included the erosion of the city’s reserves, the city’s structural deficit and the failure by city officials to reduce the size of the city’s work force.

Last November, Fitch downgraded the city’s credit rating on $2.94 billion in debt – a move that made it more expensive for the city to borrow money.

Los Angeles is not alone in its financial struggles.

Santana, whose office prepared a position-by-position layoff list for the City Council, noted cities around the nation are cutting services, laying off workers and taking other steps to balance their budgets.

“What’s happening here is no different than around the country,” Santana said. “We recognize the difficulty of layoffs. But we have no other options.

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